How to Groom A Dog at Home: Avoid Injuring your Dog

To groom a dog at home is always a tempting idea, fantasizing about how your dog will get a look that encounters the “glory and fame” trends.

But after considering the hysterical reactions our dogs will surprise us with, injuries that may occur a big ‘NO’ is what stops us from taking the risk.

Here are some tips to help you in groom your dog without having any scratches.

The ‘Before’ Home Grooming Step

Before you start to groom a dog at home, a few steps need to be taken.

First, make sure the home grooming experience becomes as enjoyable as possible for the dog. Brainstorm ideas on how to make your dog comfortable during the entire cycle.

Take it slow, you don’t have to finish all the grooming process at once! Gradually, start with the first stage and if everything went well, take the process to the next step.

keep in mind that dogs’ reactions may differ from a stage to another but, who knows, maybe you are one of the luckiest pet parents on the planet and your pet actually ‘like’ some of the grooming routine.

Whether you are one from the lucky batch or not, training your pet will guarantee promising results.

How to Train Your ‘Dog’ to Home Grooming

Dogs are one of the species that finds the grooming process unpleasant.

Trimming, brushing, and bathing etc., is a nightmare for most dogs, so training your dog for this is crucial. Whether you are going to home-grooming your pet or considering an expert.

so, the earlier you start, the better!  Coaching your dog early to be more comfortable with the process will help you a lot throughout the process.

Steps for the ‘pre-grooming cycle’ :

First, start by rubbing the dog’s face, tail, and armpits,  then start to rub the dog’s entire body. This step is to make your dog comfortable with you touching unusual spots in his body.

Try to make others touch the dog this way too, in case you considered taking him/her to an expert later.

After your dog is comfortable with the rubbing, you could start with brushing his/her hair. Don’t leave the brushing after bathing the dog, in fact, if you didn’t brush beforehand, you are exposing your dog to a potentially painful experience.

So always consider a beforehand brushing routine, and remember to get a brush that suits your dog’s coat.

All dogs, with different types of hair density, need to be brushed. Short-haired dogs are no different.

Brushing helps in spreading the dog’s natural body oil to cover the entire body perfectly.

So short-haired or long, curled or even straight,  you need to brush, brush and brush!

Starting The Grooming Cycle: Bathing The Dog

Dogs don’t need occasional bathing as humans, in fact, a bath every month is more than okay to the dog’s hygiene, with the usage of the suitable shampoos and conditioners, your dog would be shining as a diamond.

Be careful of using excess shampoo as it dries the dog’s skin and may cause irritation. Try to always use a conditioner after the usage of shampoo to avoid such incidents.

Dogs or pets generally don’t like slippery surfaces, so a mat or a relatively rough material under your dog would be great, not only for their comfort, but also for the sake of  their safety.

The ‘ how to groom your dog at home without problems’ is getting easier, right?

Cleaning The Secret Cabins; How to Clean Dogs’ Ears and Paws

Cleaning out dogs’ ears at home may seem confusing at first sight, but with the right supplies, it wouldn’t be that hard.

For the ear cleaning process, as a starter, get suitable( and trusted!) ear cleanser, cotton balls and a towel.

Wrap the towel around the dog’s head before starting, then apply the ear cleanser inside the ear and massage it gently.

You may let the dog shakes his/her head slightly, in order to get the cleanser deeper. after that, with the cotton balls, start to clean his ear with pressing smoothly to get the dirt out.

Don’t push the cotton balls too much into the dog’s ear to avoid stuffing any unseen dirt down or skin irritation.

For the paws, you may clean them while bathing the dog as it is the best way to soak the dog’s paw in water, then clean the dirt out of it.

Also, you can try a damped towel, damp the towel in lukewarm water and start to clean between the pads gently, while holding the dog’s paw carefully.

To Groom a Dog At Home: Hair Trimming

To groom your own dog’s hair may give you the chill, but it is not worrisome matter as you think if you do it right.

With good preparations, the hair trimming would be a piece of cake! In the beginning, you have to read more about your dog breed.

You will find that every dog breed has its own unique features with different techniques to deal with it, so look for what suits your dog.

Watching YouTube videos would be a great help too. It will give you ideas with how your dog will look and how to do it.

At this point, you will have a lot of ideas to decide whether you will just shorten your dog’s hair or you want to take it to the next step and do a specific haircut.

Time for the tools! you will need to decide between using hair clippers or scissors. There are two types of clippers, the standard clipper that is used in trimming the body and the small clipper which is used to trim face, ears, and feet.

Before using the clippers, you need to make your dog familiar with it. Give your dog the time to recognize its smell and then, to its voice before starting your session.

If you decided to use the scissors, make sure it is sharp enough to fast cutting. Use a comb between the dog’s skin and the scissors to dodge cutting into the skin.

Start from front to the back and leave the face, ears and feet to the end.

In a Nutshell

Don’t go through the grooming process all at once if you or your dog aren’t comfortable with it. Whenever you feel it’s time to stop, don’t hesitate in taking the decision. You could divide the cycle to whatever suits you!

Treat your dog throughout the grooming process to give him/her a motive to be more comfortable during the entire cycle.

How to groom a dog may seems as a lot of work, but the results is totally worthy!

Prepare your gadget, your dog’s treats and Now, you are ready to be your own pet groomer for good. Don’t forget to share your thoughts with us after the total makeover!